Trying to Get Pregnant? Moderate Exercise May Help

March 15, 2012 -- If you’re trying to get pregnant, adding a brisk walk to your daily routine may help -- but you may want to hold off training for that marathon.

Moderate physical activity was found to benefit women of all body types in a new study examining the impact of exercise on fertility, while intense exercise appeared to increase the time to conception for normal weight, but not overweight, women.

Normal-weight women in the study who said they exercised vigorously five or more hours a week were 42% less likely to get pregnant in any given month than women who did not exercise at all.

The more vigorous the exercise that normal-weight women engaged in, the lower their probability for conception.

“We were surprised to find that even relatively small amounts of vigorous activity seemed to impact fertility,” says researcher Lauren A. Wise, ScD, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Moderate Exercise Benefits Everyone

The study included about 3,000 women who were trying to get pregnant and were not receiving infertility treatments.

Activity level was measured through a single questionnaire the women filled out after entering the study.

Running, aerobics, gymnastics, swimming, and intense bicycling were considered vigorous exercise, while brisk walking, leisurely cycling, golfing, and gardening were considered moderate exercise.

A major goal of the study was to determine if the impact of physical activity on time to pregnancy varied by body weight.

Among the findings:

Vigorous exercise did not appear to delay conception times in women who were overweight or obese.

Engaging in five or more hours of vigorous exercise a week reduced the likelihood of getting pregnant in a given month by almost half, among women who had tried unsuccessfully to conceive for several months before entering the study.

Moderate exercise for any length of time was associated with small decreases in time to pregnancy for women of all body types.

“The take-home message for overweight and obese women is that any exercise seems better than none,” Wise tells WebMD. “Being overweight is a risk factor for infertility, and these findings suggest that exercise may improve fertility in these women.”